Noelle Antoinette Madison Embree, who along with her husband operated one of Slidell's first grocery stores, died Monday, two days after her 93rd birthday, at Northshore Living Center in Slidell.

Noelle Antoinette Madison Embree

Born on Christmas Day, 1917, in the Bayou Liberty community in St. Tammany Parish, Mrs. Embree graduated from Slidell High School in 1936 before moving to New Orleans to attend Spencer's Business College and Marinello's Beauty College. She returned to Slidell in the late 1930s and worked at Irene's Beauty Salon.

She married Finley McMain Embree in 1938, and two years later they opened Embree's Country Store at 2048 Front St., one of the first grocery stores in the city. In 1959, they changed the store's name to Embree's Bell Supermarket.

A few years before her husband died in 1976, the Embrees closed their store, but the Front Street storefront was reopened in 1977 under the name M.C. Embree Wholesale Inc. by their youngest son, Michael Embree.

In 2007, Mrs. Embree retired after spending 23 years as the store's bookkeeper and sales associate.

In addition to Michael Embree, she is survived by a daughter, Patricia Ann Embree Bass of Memphis, Tenn.; a brother, Francis Madison; six grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held Wednesday from 1 to 3 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 433 Erlanger St. in Slidell. Burial will follow in Greenwood Cemetery in Slidell.